Sweet Nightmares Sweetheart

I get where you are coming from and I somewhat agree. It did feel pointless in some ways while in others did not. However since the author chose that for the character from a characterization standpoint it defines Nesta as a character along with her response to power. 

That been said Nesta giving away her powers to save her sister was important for her personal growth and this book was more focused towards her personal journey, her relationships with other people, and her healing rather than her nature as Fae and all she could achieve and be through that transformation. This was not so much about Nesta accepting her powers but it was about accepting herself. The powers were an added bonus but it was not what made her...her.

Given how Nesta’s relationship with Feyre is in its core something of the outmost importance for both characters but also a focal point the readers want to explore more then this sacrifice highlights more and gives us a breakdown of the emotional ties between the sisters which is something that the narrative had to give to the readers and foreshadowed throughout the previous books.

Now let me get to the somewhat agree part.

The problem here was that it was basically a cope out.

This was just wasted potential. For any sacrifice to matter what is sacrificed must mean something for the person that does the sacrifice. Must be something accepted, valued. Something the person can’t live without. Something that losing cripples you and you feel the loss. Otherwise the sacrifice is a bit hollow. 

We basically saw how Nesta was afraid of her powers, we saw how she viewed them as a burden and how she didn’t get to the point of diving into the pool of her strength and Fae magic. We saw some conflict she had between her humanity and her new High Fae nature but that was mostly something the writer told us but didn’t bother showing us. It was also something mostly pointed towards romance rather than self growth. Which was pity because based on the prejudices Nesta had towards the Fae and based on how she was forced into the Cauldron her exploring her powers and what that meant for her understanding of the world, for herself, and for the powers as something primal and part of herself would have been hella interesting. It was never about Nesta becoming a Queen or being more powerful than other characters. It was never about petty competitions between characters. But by expanding, exploring and showing Nesta’s power and by observing the new creature she became the writer would add a duality in Nesta’s mentality that would bring more complexity. It would all make for a more entertaining read. 

If Nesta had understood her powers, if she had connected with them and appreciated them then giving them back to save her sister would have been a thousand times more impactful but the truth is that in the book we had just scratched the surface of her powers without expanding on them.

Either you loved or hated Nesta as a reader everyone should admit that her ability to pillage the Cauldron and the concept of conquering Death is something that can be very interesting to read. It is a concept that can generate amazing plots, amazing characterization, introduce incredible things to the world and the universe of the series.

I also understand that once you touch that potential and after hyping the hell out of it is very easy for any writer to be intimidated and back down. But backing down is not the same as dropping the whole thing in a rushed way without bothering to even...try.

This points me to the writing using things for shock effect and them abandoning them because the writer can’t handle them. 

But even if that was not the original purpose and the author chooses to center solely on the characterization and not on the fantasy aspect then it is still a failure of sorts to not expand on those powers. Because when it comes to Nesta giving away her power, for the emotional impact the writer intended, and for that to even work, we as readers should have understood what those powers truly meant. 

We got some silver flames and ‘Death’ and sure the cinematic effect would have been nice in a potential adaptation and when you read certain lines (Lady Death, Queen of all Queens, Death Gods, etc) you get the epic sense but...what does it really mean? How does it work? What is it? It’s like watching a vague sketch of a cake, waiting for it to bake and never seeing and how much more tasting it. I mean sure...the sketch was awesome, the intention clever, it would have been amazing but...the sketch was torn and you are left wandering.

Beyond that we should have understood what those powers truly meant so we could appreciate the gravity of Nesta’s action. If Nesta had embraced them and we have seen them in action and she had retained them for a certain amount of time by organically growing along with them then we would be getting both the practical and emotional gravity of those powers and how they redefined Nesta. 

Truth is that we didn't. We only got hints of her power and an outburst of it but in reality most of it was left unexplored. It was vague, simplistic and hollow. 

It all comes down to substance and in order to have that then what you work with, what you give away it must matter, it must have nuances, depth, dimension. It must have repercussions. We got nothing of that for Nesta's powers and by the time she was finally ready to embrace the possibility of handling them those were gone.

It was superficial in the sense that was superficially handled.

And then whatever was left of those powers was given in a sort of open ending and again in a vague way like throwing to the readers a bone for getting them to read the next installments of the series that won’t even be about that character (you can also call it money grab).

On the other hand the sacrifice of powers is a trope that I general don't like. It is constantly given by writers (along with similar death tropes as the ultimate sacrifices) and it is almost never done right and this was not an exception. It was sloppy.

One thing that I also find tiresome is the repeat of a certain behavior in these books. Maas has the tendency to over hype things. To aim for the epic and the legendary. To give epic quotes and hype and hype and foreshadow and then she either gives an anticlimactic conclusion or drops everything she kept building and hinting at.

It’s frustrating and annoying and we haven’t even seen this for the first time with Nesta and her powers.

In the end of ACOMAF Cassian's wings get shredded which led to the readers anticipating a certain plot for that character. We had expected to see how he would overcome that trauma, how it would define his character, how he would work through that and how that would affect the plot, his dynamic as a character, his relationships and so on. Something that given who and what Cassian is both as a person and also as an Illyrian warrior and General led to a certain hype and by the time ACOWAR was out the writer basically shrugged this off. Cassian was healed outside the narrative and it was as if that never happened. So it was mostly used for shock value and nothing else. 

By the time we read ACOFAS the Illyrians were heading into conflict that hinted towards internal war and an uprising. We all thought this would be a big part of ACOSF and that was not touched either. 

We get all this hype and hype and it does not pay off. We get nothing in the end. Everything deflates and is not even handled. Hell, at this point in the books and we don't even know the last names of most of the main characters. We still know the King of Hybern as Hybern based on the name of a territory. I mean..

Another issue I personally have with this is the 'agenda' the writer has that has nothing to do with the writing or the narrative but is partially inclined towards something that is not related with the characters in question of their characterization. Nesta was basically the most powered up individual in the ACOTAR series similarly to the death gods. It was meant to hype and foreshadow something epic but at the same time it went against what the writer had imagined as the core of the universe which for her is Rhy/sand, Fey/re and Fey/sand. In the same way Amren was de-powered for that purpose alone Nesta followed and it has nothing to do with Amren or Nesta in the grand scheme of the things but everything to do with the writer being partial to certain characters and certain characters having special and preferential treatment. And I could get behind that if the writing did it right and I could not see right through that intention. But I do, so it feels forced and it just takes away a lot of my enjoyment.